The Office of Congressional Ethics, a non-partisan watchdog made up of non-members of Congress, asked the Justice Department (DOJ) this week to investigate members involved in the PMA Group pay-to-play scandal. The members involved in the scandal includes — you guessed it — Jim Moran.

PMA Group was a multi-million dollar Washington lobbying organization. In November 2008, the FBI raided PMA’s offices and the investigation that followed revealed a huge pay-to-play scheme in which PMA would exchange campaign contributions for earmarks and government contracts.

The members in question were members of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, including Moran and Reps. Pete Visclosky, Norman Dicks, Marcy Kaptur, and the late John Murtha, who was chairman at the time.

PMA Group has given Moran the most money he has ever received from one group, totaling $177,700 since 1989, including almost $100,000 in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles alone.

PMA also helped out Moran’s brother as well. Jim Moran hosted a March 2009 fundraiser for his brother Brian Moran, who ran in the Democratic primary for governor of Virginia last year, at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City, making the event more accessible to defense lobbyists and contractors. Jim Moran also brought along Murtha. Over the next four days, Brian Moran took in over $20,000 from lobbyists and military contractors.

A New York Times analysis showed about 10% of donations to Brian’s campaign came from people in the defense industry, many of which have personally profited from earmarks inserted by Moran into defense appropriations bills. It also showed that nine military contractors who together had received $38,000,000 in earmarks inserted by Moran into appropriations bills contributed over $102,000 over two year’s to Brian Moran’s campaign. One notable donor to both Jim and Brian Moran? Paul Magliocchetti, founder of PMA Group. PMA clients and employees gave a total of over $90,000 to Brian Moran.

In just the first quarter of 2010, Moran received $38,500 in campaign contributions from executives, PACs, and lobbyists of companies for which he has obtained earmarks totaling over $26,000,000.

In February 2010 the House Ethics Committee cleared the members involved in the PMA scandal. However, the committee is made up of Congressmen and women. The Office of Congressional Ethics, who just demanded a DOJ criminal investigation, is made up of non-members.

Jim Moran is truly a corrupt official and possible criminal. This is disgusting. It’s time for the games to end and for some honesty in Congress. No wonder congressional job approval is at 20%…

For those of us who work at educating ourselves about the government, and who have a larger view than our own local politics, it would be helpful if articles such as this included, in the opening sentence, the name of the state a congressman represents. The Internet, after all, is not the local paper. These people are controlling comittees that affect all of us, not just their own states.